Legal Commentary

Scott Moss on Abortion Rights Under State Constitutional Law
Feminist Law Professor Scott Moss has a new piece available about abortion rights under state constitutional law.  The premise, that with the ever-more-conservative Supreme Court state courts are going to be the better outlet for protecting abortion rights, echoes Justice Brennan’s 1980s call for state court protection of constitutional rights in the face of the [...

Professional Reading: Michelman on Socioeconomic Rights in Constitutional Law
Check out Frank I. Michelman's (Harvard Law School) draft paper, Socioeconomic Rights in Constitutional Law: Explaining America Away. Here's the abstract: The apparent omission of a socioeconomic commitment from United States constitutional law gives rise to continuing debate...

Somin on Constitutional Property Rights
Ilya Somin (George Mason) has posted Taking Property Rights Seriously? The Supreme Court and the 'Poor Relation' of Constitutional Law on SSRN. Here's the abstract: Over the last twenty-five years, the Supreme Court has expanded protection for constitutional property rights...

Gardbaum on Human Rights as International Constitutional Rights
Stephen Gardbaum (University of California, Los Angeles - School of Law) has posted Human Rights as International Constitutional Rights (European Journal of International Law, Vol. 19, No...

State law as the basis for federal constitutional doctrine
Kennedy v Louisiana was the latest SCOTUS decision to survey state legislation as a basis for inferring American constitutional norms. Aside from the Eighth Amendment cases that use state legislation as the basis for inferring a national ?consensus? supporting or condemning a practice, there are several important Due Process cases that survey state laws to infer whether some particular state?s law offends some evolving norm of decency, including Glucksberg, Lawrence v Texas, and Troxel...

Frank I. Michelman on Socioeconomic Rights in Constitutional Law
Though this blog has not spent time highlighting socioeconomic rights papers, Frank I. Michelman recently presented a draft of a theoretical, yet approachable, piece: "Socioeconomic Rights in constitutional law: explaining America away...

Selection of State Supreme Court Judges
How State Court Judges are Selected

Cumulative Voting
Protecting minority shareholder interests

The Civil Rights Act of 1871
Law bans discrimination enacted under color of state law

State Will Statutes
State Differences in Last Will and Testament Checklist

Discrimination
Federal laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability

Heart of Atlanta v United States
Supreme Court Decision: Civil Rights Act Protected by Interstate Commerce Clause

Immigration and Customs Enforcement
alleging government agencies and officials violated immigrant workers' constitutional rights.

Cowboy Hat
Lincoln County pays citizen $10,500 settlement for Constitutional Rights violations.

Rally Rights
Gettysburg Borough awards arrested protester $22,500 civil rights settlement.

US Federal Government
allegedly violated the niversal Declaration of Human Rights by deporting undocumented parents of US born children.

Civil / Human Rights
alleging violations of basic human and civil rights.

Right-of-Way
City of Hastings pays preacher $1 settlement and $10,000 in legal fees for constitutional right violations.